Why are we against the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?

Obamacare shows us that adding a right to health care has already taken away the most basic First Amendment right of Catholics to exercise their religion. A right to abortion handed down by a court takes away the citizens’ right to vote their conscience. Any new, or unnecessary right, always takes away an old necessary one. I wish it were not so. I wish that we could make everything good into a right, but we just can’t.

Healthcare cannot be a privilege either, if we look at the true definition of privilege. Privilege is a special favor granted by another entity, whether it is government, the private sector, or within a household. It is also not something that we only obtain from the government. Healthcare is a service that is provided through both public and private means. If we want to live out the liberties granted to us by our founders, we should reserve our right to purchase healthcare in the free market, allowing opportunities for those to purchase at affordable rates, not by allowing healthcare controlled by bureaucrats.

Of course there is, and can never be, a right to health care. But there is, and will always be, the duty for us to take care of our brothers and sisters.

First, the insurance premium benefits are not and will not be as attractive as they were originally advertised. In order for ACA insurance programs to reduce premiums, it requires the participation of all healthy young Americans. The community ratings provision of Obamacare means that young people will be forced to pay significantly higher premiums under the ACA than they would under an actuarial based insurance system. This is especially true considering most healthy young adults need only carry catastrophic insurance, whereas the ACA demands that have more comprehensive (and more expensive) coverage. Early empirical evidence supports the logic that the premiums for young people are significantly higher under Obamacare.